.243 good for long-range?

Is the .243 a good round for long-range hunting deer-size game and 800-1,000 yard shooting? Can ballistic tables, drop cards and other shooting aids be found for the .243 round?
If so, what weight of .243 bullet is used for long-range shooting?

I'm looking to enter the long-range shooting world soon. I'm interested in the Savage Predator Series rifles. The Predator series might be the best bang for my buck.

Can ballistic tables, drop cards and other shooting aids be found for the .243 round?
If so, what weight of .243 bullet is used for long-range shooting?

The heaviest your barrel twist will stabilize. You can use any of the freeware ballistic programs to calculate drop tables. You will spend a lot of rounds shooting that distance on a range. By the timeyou are ready you will own a couple of ballistic programs.

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I'm looking to enter the long-range shooting world soon. I'm interested in the Savage Predator Series rifles. The Predator series might be the best bang for my buck.

Thanks!

If you want to shoot 800 - 1,000 yards at deer, you need way more gun than a .243. The Savage Long Range Hunter and Savage American Classic are both a better choice for that game and distance. The predator hunter is a midrange Coyote/varmint rifle. For me the right cartridge would be the .300 Win mag or .300 WSM in a rifle of 9 lbs. The Long Range Hunter is available in .300 WSM with an adjustable brake - it's enough gun. Wear good ear protection.

Getting good hits that far is way more than twice as hard as shooting 400 to 500 yards.

I agree with Fitch. The .243 is a great cartridge in its own right and is as accurate as the next round out to a 1000yds. Even with a 100gn bullet being pushed to 3100fps it falls below the "expert imposed" 1000ft/lbs of energy after 500yds. This is not to say you can't kill a deer with a bullet that has less than a 1000ft/lbs of energy. I've killed deer with a .22 Magnum before and others, I'm sure, have killed them with the lowly .22 short.
I do feel that shots with the .243 past 500yds will require the most precision you and your rifle can muster. Shot placement will be the most important issue and there isn't a lot of room for error.
I'm currently using the 95gn Ballistic Tip for my .243. It works good on groundhogs to at least 600yds. No matter what bullet you shoot you will need an accurate velocity for making a ballistic chart. These can be seen/made at JBM (JBM). Alot of the guys here are using PDA's with ballistic programs in them. They know their bullets velocity and input the atmospheric conditions on site and calculate drops there. Depends on your funds. JohnnyK.

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another in agreement with the above posts. The 243 is a great long range performer for paper but deer sized game past about 500yards, not so much. This round is a good performer out to 1000yrds on paper and is a fabulous varmint round to most all distances the shooter is capable of shooting his/her equipment. barrel life is said to be a bunch lower than say the 308, but I still love this round. the 6mm offerings by Berger, Sierra and such has made this round quite a good performer for long range varminting and precision target shooters alike. for hunting big game I would suggest something that retains more energy at the ranges you want to shoot at. I myself like my 300WSM for long range deer hunting and the 300Ultramag for LR elk, bear etc... the 7mm rem mag and other larger 7's are also very good for this purpose. to each his own, and remember, this is a great place to learn about ballistics and LR shooting but the best place to learn your capabilities and the equipment capabilities is behind the rifle at the range. happy shooting!

every caliber has drop tables . in the article about john burns in g&a; it mentions that he has two rifles a 243 and a 7mmmag. they are remington 700's with kreiger barrrels. i have killed more than 20 deer with the .243. it is a fine round. i have shot competition out to 1000 yards. while the .243 can do well on paper and hunting i would not consider it for long range on deer. i would get a remington .

Is the .243 a good round for long-range hunting deer-size game and 800-1,000 yard shooting? Can ballistic tables, drop cards and other shooting aids be found for the .243 round?
If so, what weight of .243 bullet is used for long-range shooting?

I'm looking to enter the long-range shooting world soon. I'm interested in the Savage Predator Series rifles. The Predator series might be the best bang for my buck.

Thanks!

The Savage would be a great rifle but for long range you may run into a problem with the twist, it is a 9.25 which depending on your elevation may not stabilize some of the 100+ gr bullets. I would try to get the 105 Berger to work good, I have seen a couple deer get reamed by this combo out in the 600yrd range.
I would be tentative to go to much farther. On the bright side if you rock it in a Savage you can get a 300 WSM barrel for 350 dollars and roll it on and step it up to a 1000yrds when the 243 has been out grown.
You can make all the drop charts and cards you want with JBM, shoot to confirm then tweek them to get them spot on just like any other cal.